Non-smoking laws were passed in California to protect restaurant employees, not customers. Restaurant waitstaff do end up breathing in an ENORMOUS amount of second-hand smoke on the job and it was determined that they are entitled to a safe and healthy workplace just as much as anyone who works in a non-smoking office is.
That said, I grew up on east coast and was always used to being in smoky bars and restaurants and at the time, it never really phased me even though I don't smoke. After having lived in CA for a while with the non-smoking laws, I have found that not only do I enjoy restaurants more, but ALL of my smoking friends do as well! They have no problems with stepping outside to keep the restaurant air clear. Of course, weather is much more mild in CA so stepping outside for a smoke is not a big deal.
I have several friends who use Blogger to maintain their weblogs. While I do not care to publicize my life or observations online, nor would I expect anyone to be terribly interested in either if I did, it is a nifty application. If I were going to have a weblog, and who knows - never say never, I would use it.
"Confidentiality is key at the Census Bureau, since almost no one would participate in the great decennial inquisition without it. "
I remember when the census forms arrived at my residence. There was a paragraph stating that it is illegal for me to lie or to decline to report my census information. Is this incorrect? Could I in fact just simply refuse to participate?
This is definitely true in the case of government. I used to work in an IT dept for the state of CA and the management that made all the purchasing decisions had no idea how to monitor the develoment process of tech projects. We were a Solaris shop yet consultants pushed NT-based software. When the consultants couldn't produce their deliverables on schedule, they demanded more money to get back on schedule. Management would go along with this - unbelievable.
What was even more frustrating, was that I would tell the management, get rid of these guys and hire some independent contractors who are NOT pimping crappy 3rd party software that we don't need. I can recall 2 specifc projects where it took management a year of battling with the consultant and not getting anything that worked, before they would actually get rid of them.
I will say that there was one vendor who was fantastic and an absolute pleasure to work with: giavaneers, based in Santa Cruz. When one consultant group couldn't deliver and was going to have the project taken away from them for their incompetence (at my insistence), they sub-contracted to giavaneers, who quite literally, saved the day. I highly recommend them.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
The first thing I thought of is if the pilot is injured or the instruments on board are damaged, the plane could possibly be landed safely by someone remotely from the airport, with the neural net overriding the standard system.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Non-compete agreements were designed so that someone couldn't steal "property," (in this case property would most likely mean code or product specs), from one company to use at another company, the idea being that as an employee everything you produce belongs to your employer. However, employees can't be prevented from using their brains and if they acquired skills that happen to be transferable, no company can prevent them from using their skills somewhere else should they choose to quit. That's just absurd.
This is so bogus given that while I worked at Microsoft as a contractor several years ago, it was common knowledge that MS poached talent from competing companies by offering the lead developer money to leave that company with no notice and taking as much of their work with them as possible so as to cripple the company's marketability.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
The estimate up to 12,000 people we effected by the suit.
So before legal fees, this comes to just over 8 thousand dollars, each.
Well, actually, I'm pretty sure that the money will not be divided evenly amongst everyone. I would think that people who worked there for a longer period of time would receive more of the settlement than someone else who had worked a shorter period of time.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
...for Microsoft from 1987 to the present then you might be covered by the lawsuit. I am as I was a contracter there for almost 2 years from 1995-1997. Check out http://216.13.224.31/msoft.htm for more information.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
--...and if you actually have some facts, post them.
Fine. Excerpted from West's Encyclopedia of American Law:
Record companies also use complex contractual formulas to determine royalty payments to their artists. Companies typically offer seemingly large royalty percentages to artists. Various clauses in the recording agreements then are used to reduce the royalty percentages, reduce the number of units on which royalties are paid, and delay payment for many months. Although a few small record companies have made some effort to simplify the structure of recording agreements, the major record companies and their smaller affiliates have uniformly fought to maintain the more complex, formula-based agreements....
A separate copyright exists in each legally recorded version of a song. Therefore, when a musician records a song after receiving the appropriate license from the owner of the song's copyright, that musician owns a separate copyright in the recorded version of the song. Normally, recording contracts require that a musician record songs---even songs otherwise owned by the musician---as works for hire. The copyrights to such recordings, called the masters, automatically become the property of the record company.
I also used to be an Audio Producer. I have booked studio time to record musicians and voice talent, managed post-production from DAT to various formats for distribution, including mastering my own demo tape, so I fully understand what the costs are and what they are not.
-- Instead, there are a lot of whining noises about music being "too expensive".
Whoops - that's not what I was saying at all. Please allow me to try again.
The internet as a music distribution medium makes it feasible for a band to manage their own recording and distribution without having to sign all of their rights away to a record company label. I have no problems paying for music and do so regularly. I confess that I am and always will be more of a music geek than a computer geek.
As a result of said musicgeekness, I would prefer to buy from a musical artist directly and cut out the middleman of big record companies so that my money is supporting that artist. Major record companies support their profits and interests at the expense of artists and consumers. They are parasitic like contract agencies, making money off of other people's real work, totally unconcerned with anyone else's welfare but their own.
My apologies for not articulating it clearly the first time. I hope this makes more sense.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I doubt that the majority of cellphone users, which I believe are not necessarily text adventure kind of people but I may be wrong, would have the patience for the lack of GUI.
Nevermind the fact that the current reduce-every-application-and-game-to-handheld -devices craze is totally silly. Then again, I'm one of the last people on the planet who does not have a cellphone - I've come close but the need has not arisen to such a degree as to compel me to buy one.
I cheered mightily when I attended a theater performance this past weekend where the house rules detailed no cellphones and proceeded to act out what would happen to someone whose cellphone went off during the performance with a butcher block table and a HUGE mallet. It was beautiful.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
. Artists and musicians will not be able to make their money in the same ways and the same quantities as they do now.
It's the recording companies with their draconian contracts who will not be able to make money using their standard parasitic and price-fixing practices. Producing CDs costs them pennies yet the CD prices have stayed at $14-18 for the past few years. I'd venture to say that as the years have progressed, producing CDs has gotten cheaper with further advancement and use of its technology while the prices have increased, (I remember when CDs first came out averaging $5-8). And where is all of that extra money going? I doubt that the musicians are seeing any of it.
Actually, I think that artists and musicians will be able to make better money via the internet than they have been able to in the long run because they will not be as dependent on radio play and record company marketing.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Yes it's feasiable because it's something the government needs desperately in order to automate its mountains of paperwork that it requires in order to maintain accountability to the public.
The problem of forging or stealing digital signatures is of primary importance and concern (atleast it was back when I was working for a state court system). I don't think encrypted digital signatures are the way to go at all. I see government, in particular, using some sort of biometrics system to verify signatures (captured via pressure sensitive electronic pen and pad), voice, face, fingerprints, or iris and retinal scan.
Here's some more general information for whomever is interested:
I loved Cryptonomicon, don't misunderstand me. I was glued to it. One of the best books I've read in a really long time. The problem is that the ending is weak in relation to the rest of the book which is so richly compelling and strong in plot, storyline. historical reference and character development.
You see the ending as being non-conclusive but I saw it as too conclusive. The lawyer guy showing up at the end with the spears and such - that seemed too contrived. I actually liked the fact that Randy was uncertain about his future. That kept me in the suspension of disbelief, on the brink of being fooled that maybe this isn't fiction, maybe it's real, and then I get pulled from the edge at the end because certain plot elements show up at the end to get tied up neatly with a big red bow.
Just my 2 cents.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Not only is it a well-written essay, but it provides a very articulate and easy-to-follow explanation of the current computer technology developments. I bought a copy of it and gave it to my dad. If there's someone you know and love who wants an understanding of what it is geeks talk about, have them read In the Beginning was the Command Line.
Quick sidenote, I have read Zodiac, Diamond Age, Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, the latter 2 being my favorites, but have always been disappointed by the endings. I hope that Quicksilver is better in that regards.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Many congratulations but I do hope that we won't have to hear about employees being cut as a result of the now official merger between 2 such respected companies. I know that business decisions have to be made in the best interest of the company and so forth but that would be a downer.
Regardless, good luck!
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I'm going to say the patent will be invalidated since CNET isn't even devoted to internet marketing management... oh wait, yes they are -they just disguise it as providing content.
My mistake - CNET does deserve the patent.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Given a choice between dealing with spam, and dealing with an overzealous government, which would you pick?
If I were a business that had my network go down for any number of hours or days at a loss of thousands of dollars to my company, damn straight I would want the government involved.
I atleast need to be able to seek recourse in the courts so that I can file a civil suit to collect compensation to cover the financial damage my company suffered by the network-trespassing-spamming-scum.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
The more interest by the business community into mp3 or any technology, the more lawsuits there's going to be. It's not about real threats to business - just perceived threats. If someone *thinks* that someone's development could dent their profits in any indirect way whatsoever, no matter how slight, they're going to go after them. It's the squash-everything-by-intimidation-and-maybe-ask-qu estions-later strategy, a common mafia tactic. Of course, no one's ever going to prosecute them for being the cowardly bullying thugs that they are.
Sorry for the bitterness - this kind of stuff brings me down.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I think all you programmers should stop working on 'Newest, greatest, spiffiest' and start trying to get the existing stuff working.
I agree completely. I am continually required to learn the latest and greatest database/server programming language for web applications but what I really want is to be able to code cleanly all the time. For me, that means focusing on hardware and network issues, understanding the whole picture of the process of the kernel that accesses and organizes hardware disk space and how routers transmit that data across networks, etc...
Unfortunately, the programming demands take precedence over my goals but I try to learn as much as I can from whomever is willing to teach me whenever possible.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I currently work for a state government IT dept, (although I'm in my last week and will be working at a private company by the end of May), and policy in regards to software is somewhat scattered.
Those of us who maintain and administer servers in the IT dept want as much open source as possible because we can go find more accurate answers, more quickly, than we've ever gotten from a private company's tech support, and it works better - (more efficient server processes). The management wants a product with a support contract to feel safe. Also, once they have funding for a development project, it's use it or lose it so if an off-the-shelf product will produce results and time and resources are tight, then that's what is used. So there's kind of a tug-of-war and the fact that people like me come in and get things working and then leave for a better job with less bureaucratic nonsense, doesn't help things.
Then there's the problem of alot of development projects being out-sourced to vendors who are nothing more than 3rd-party proprietary product pimps, (say that 10X fast), although management has recently begun to listen to those of us who support the servers, after much persistence, and are being more stringent about rejecting proposals that do not comply with our current Oracle/Apache/Solaris shop.
So the branch of state government I work for does try to use open source whenever it can and has a tacit understanding that everything is to be developed in such a manner that it can be ported to a different platform if needed so that moving to open source is an option if the time and resources ever become available, but it's not always possible right off the bat.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Don't Annoy Me, Inc. will tell over 1,500 telemarketing companies to leave you alone and supply you with a list of companies contacted which should keep you off of their lists for 10 years.
For what it's worth, when I told AT&T to remove me from their call list, they were very polite, removed me immediately and sent me a letter confirming my removal with a number to call if I was ever contacted by them again so there are some companies who take it very seriously.
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Play Quake or Tomb Raider on a PDA? I'm trying to picture myself playing Tomb Raider as I do now but on a PDA device while riding the bus and what I see is me really annoying people because I tend to flinch and jerk and duck as I play the game. That's the fun part about role-playing video games - getting so immersed that your body reacts to the game in addition to your thoughts and reflexes. I just can't see having the same experience on a handheld so what's the point?
- tokengeekgrrl "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Slashdot Mirror
That said, I grew up on east coast and was always used to being in smoky bars and restaurants and at the time, it never really phased me even though I don't smoke. After having lived in CA for a while with the non-smoking laws, I have found that not only do I enjoy restaurants more, but ALL of my smoking friends do as well! They have no problems with stepping outside to keep the restaurant air clear. Of course, weather is much more mild in CA so stepping outside for a smoke is not a big deal.
- tokengeekgrrl
-tokengeekgrrl
I remember when the census forms arrived at my residence. There was a paragraph stating that it is illegal for me to lie or to decline to report my census information. Is this incorrect? Could I in fact just simply refuse to participate?
- tokengeekgrrl
What was even more frustrating, was that I would tell the management, get rid of these guys and hire some independent contractors who are NOT pimping crappy 3rd party software that we don't need. I can recall 2 specifc projects where it took management a year of battling with the consultant and not getting anything that worked, before they would actually get rid of them.
I will say that there was one vendor who was fantastic and an absolute pleasure to work with: giavaneers, based in Santa Cruz. When one consultant group couldn't deliver and was going to have the project taken away from them for their incompetence (at my insistence), they sub-contracted to giavaneers, who quite literally, saved the day. I highly recommend them.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Does little Johnny or Susie not have any "real" friends?
No problem!
They can clone themselves a new best friend in the
garage over the weekend with the Home Cloning Kit!
Now on sale at K-Mart for only $49,999.99!
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
This is so bogus given that while I worked at Microsoft as a contractor several years ago, it was common knowledge that MS poached talent from competing companies by offering the lead developer money to leave that company with no notice and taking as much of their work with them as possible so as to cripple the company's marketability.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
So before legal fees, this comes to just over 8 thousand dollars, each.
Well, actually, I'm pretty sure that the money will not be divided evenly amongst everyone. I would think that people who worked there for a longer period of time would receive more of the settlement than someone else who had worked a shorter period of time.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Fine. Excerpted from West's Encyclopedia of American Law:
I also used to be an Audio Producer. I have booked studio time to record musicians and voice talent, managed post-production from DAT to various formats for distribution, including mastering my own demo tape, so I fully understand what the costs are and what they are not.
-- Instead, there are a lot of whining noises about music being "too expensive".
Whoops - that's not what I was saying at all. Please allow me to try again.
The internet as a music distribution medium makes it feasible for a band to manage their own recording and distribution without having to sign all of their rights away to a record company label. I have no problems paying for music and do so regularly. I confess that I am and always will be more of a music geek than a computer geek.
As a result of said musicgeekness, I would prefer to buy from a musical artist directly and cut out the middleman of big record companies so that my money is supporting that artist. Major record companies support their profits and interests at the expense of artists and consumers. They are parasitic like contract agencies, making money off of other people's real work, totally unconcerned with anyone else's welfare but their own.
My apologies for not articulating it clearly the first time. I hope this makes more sense.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Nevermind the fact that the current reduce-every-application-and-game-to-handheld -devices craze is totally silly. Then again, I'm one of the last people on the planet who does not have a cellphone - I've come close but the need has not arisen to such a degree as to compel me to buy one.
I cheered mightily when I attended a theater performance this past weekend where the house rules detailed no cellphones and proceeded to act out what would happen to someone whose cellphone went off during the performance with a butcher block table and a HUGE mallet. It was beautiful.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
It's the recording companies with their draconian contracts who will not be able to make money using their standard parasitic and price-fixing practices. Producing CDs costs them pennies yet the CD prices have stayed at $14-18 for the past few years. I'd venture to say that as the years have progressed, producing CDs has gotten cheaper with further advancement and use of its technology while the prices have increased, (I remember when CDs first came out averaging $5-8). And where is all of that extra money going? I doubt that the musicians are seeing any of it.
Actually, I think that artists and musicians will be able to make better money via the internet than they have been able to in the long run because they will not be as dependent on radio play and record company marketing.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
The problem of forging or stealing digital signatures is of primary importance and concern (atleast it was back when I was working for a state court system). I don't think encrypted digital signatures are the way to go at all. I see government, in particular, using some sort of biometrics system to verify signatures (captured via pressure sensitive electronic pen and pad), voice, face, fingerprints, or iris and retinal scan.
Here's some more general information for whomever is interested:
www.finger-scan.com
www.facial-scan.com
www.retina-scan.com
www.hand-scan.com
www.voice-scan.com
www.signature-scan.com
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
You see the ending as being non-conclusive but I saw it as too conclusive. The lawyer guy showing up at the end with the spears and such - that seemed too contrived. I actually liked the fact that Randy was uncertain about his future. That kept me in the suspension of disbelief, on the brink of being fooled that maybe this isn't fiction, maybe it's real, and then I get pulled from the edge at the end because certain plot elements show up at the end to get tied up neatly with a big red bow.
Just my 2 cents.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Quick sidenote, I have read Zodiac, Diamond Age, Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, the latter 2 being my favorites, but have always been disappointed by the endings. I hope that Quicksilver is better in that regards.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Regardless, good luck!
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
My mistake - CNET does deserve the patent.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
If I were a business that had my network go down for any number of hours or days at a loss of thousands of dollars to my company, damn straight I would want the government involved.
I atleast need to be able to seek recourse in the courts so that I can file a civil suit to collect compensation to cover the financial damage my company suffered by the network-trespassing-spamming-scum.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Sorry for the bitterness - this kind of stuff brings me down.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I agree completely. I am continually required to learn the latest and greatest database/server programming language for web applications but what I really want is to be able to code cleanly all the time. For me, that means focusing on hardware and network issues, understanding the whole picture of the process of the kernel that accesses and organizes hardware disk space and how routers transmit that data across networks, etc...
Unfortunately, the programming demands take precedence over my goals but I try to learn as much as I can from whomever is willing to teach me whenever possible.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
Those of us who maintain and administer servers in the IT dept want as much open source as possible because we can go find more accurate answers, more quickly, than we've ever gotten from a private company's tech support, and it works better - (more efficient server processes). The management wants a product with a support contract to feel safe. Also, once they have funding for a development project, it's use it or lose it so if an off-the-shelf product will produce results and time and resources are tight, then that's what is used. So there's kind of a tug-of-war and the fact that people like me come in and get things working and then leave for a better job with less bureaucratic nonsense, doesn't help things.
Then there's the problem of alot of development projects being out-sourced to vendors who are nothing more than 3rd-party proprietary product pimps, (say that 10X fast), although management has recently begun to listen to those of us who support the servers, after much persistence, and are being more stringent about rejecting proposals that do not comply with our current Oracle/Apache/Solaris shop.
So the branch of state government I work for does try to use open source whenever it can and has a tacit understanding that everything is to be developed in such a manner that it can be ported to a different platform if needed so that moving to open source is an option if the time and resources ever become available, but it's not always possible right off the bat.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
For what it's worth, when I told AT&T to remove me from their call list, they were very polite, removed me immediately and sent me a letter confirming my removal with a number to call if I was ever contacted by them again so there are some companies who take it very seriously.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
I like the kind of net that www.mysteryNet.com is creating. Original online mysteries and crime puzzles that are both unique and inventive.
It just so happens that 80% of the site's unique visitors are female.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions